Tito Pilco Mori

Radio Frecuencia Popular

September 3, 1997, in Rioja, Peru

Pilco, owner and director of Radio Frecuencia Popular in Rioja and host of the program "El Pueblo Quiere Saber" (The People Want to Know), which frequently criticized public prosecutors, judges, and police officials, was assaulted August 27 on the outskirts of Rioja as he was returning home from a visit with a cousin. He was found, severely injured and unable to speak, at 5 a.m. on August 28, some distance from his motorcycle.

He died on September 3 in a Lima hospital. Two witnesses reported seeing assailants in a white car without license plates intercept Pilco on his motorcycle and beat him. But the official report said his death resulted from head wounds received when he crashed his motorcyle because he was drunk. The investigation was initially headed by José Monteverde, a provincial prosecutor whose integrity Pilco had questioned on his show, according to the local press. After a Lima newspaper published an account of Pilco's death, the case was reopened.

Motive Unconfirmed: CPJ is investigating to determine whether the death was work-related.